You are literally me a two months ago. I was in the exact same situation haha. Belly fat is usually (and sadly) the last to disappear, but here are some things that I changed that have made HUUUUUGE differences for me. I swear today I woke up with the flattest my stomach has ever been (I’ve always had a round belly for some reason, even when I was young)

So here are the changes I made that I think helped give my belly fat a little nudge out the door:

• I lowered my carb intake significantly. I always ate brown, but I would eat usually at least 2-3 slices of bread a day plus a lot of pasta (thanks to my college caf). So I went from that to eating bread once or twice a week and pasta once a week. I also noticed that really helped with my digestion and stomach issues I had been having. Now I eat a little more bread (Ezekiel, usually 5-6 times a week for breakfast), but I still hardly ever eat it more than once a day and hardly ever eat pasta. So basically, after all that blah blah, I just cut back on grains!
• I also reeeeally started watching my sugar intake. I used to only pay attention to calories mostly, and I started realizing how my sugar was in a lot of the “healthy” food I was eating (my precious Trader Joe’s soup :’() So I started to cut back sugar significantly too.
• I drink a lot more water. I’ve been struggling with this since being home, but I’ve definitely noticed since trying to drink a lot more water during the day that it’s helped with bloating and belly fat.
• I’ve also just done a lot of weight training! I’ve made huge gains in my weight lifting since leaving school and I think that really helped. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. I think taking weight lifting more seriously has really helped.
• I’ve also destressed and gotten a lot more sleep since being home. Stress and lack of sleep are HUGE belly fat causes surprisingly. So if you’re over stressed and not sleeping enough, that can be a big boo-boo!
• I also went from eating three large meals and two snacks to eating about 5-6 evenly sized meals a day. Each little “meal” is 200-300 calories usually and I think that’s really helped keep my metabolism up all day.
• I’ve upped my protein intake like crazy. It’s been proven that people who get the right amount of protein for when you’re really active (1-2g per lb of bodyweight) gives you a smaller waistline! So I’ve gone from getting almost no protein (thanks to my huge love of bread and pasta!) to getting either at or very close to my body weight in it. So having more protein and veggie dense meals has been super helpful! Sauteed mahi mahi with salsa and steamed veggies? Quinoa with tons of steamed veggies and sriracha? Ahhhh sooooo yummmmyyyy.
• Switching up my workouts has been great too. I went from basically just doing cardio, to doing cardio and weights, to doing cardio, weights, and pilates, to doing cardio, weights, swimming, pilates, running, and lots of yoga! Variety is SUPER important! Every workout has different benefits, so the more you do the more well rounded you’ll be! For example, my 13 year old cousin is a soccer star and she may be able to run a mile in 5 minutes, but her squat form is bad, her core is awful (I can do 10 million more v-up than she can), and she doesn’t have any arm strength. So thanks to doing such a variety my fitness is more well rounded. (Not trying to hate on my cousin, hahaha just using an example :))

So yeah :) that’s basically what I’ve done different over the last two months that have really helped me see a difference! I hope this helped :)!

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